Mahindra & Mahindra is said to have topped an offer for Aston Martin from Italian private equity fund Investindustrial.

“There are a lot of moving parts here,” the source told Reuters on Monday, adding that an initial 40 percent stake could rise to 50 percent for a total price unlikely to top $400 million.

Kuwait’s Investment Dar denied on Sunday that it is reviewing rival bids from Mahindra and InvestIndustrial for 50 percent of the UK luxury sports car brand. However, sources said the bidders were wrangling over issues on management control.

Recouping investment

Investment Dar led a group that bought Aston Martin from Ford Motor Co. in 2007 for 479 million pounds, or $925 million at the time. Analysts have said that Investment Dar, which went to the market for a $1 billion debt restructuring last year, hoped to recoup what it had sunk into Aston Martin — meaning a value for the firm of about $1 billion.

InvestIndustrial bid between 200 million and 250 million pounds ($400 million) for a stake, a source had said earlier.

An apparent lack of interest among major carmakers, such as BMW, Daimler or Toyota, may have left the way open for Mahindra and InvestIndustrial, which sold Italy’s Ducati high-end motorcycle brand toAudi earlier this year.

Mahindra owns Korea’s SsangYongSUV maker and is the world’s biggest tractor maker. It has seen India’s Tata Motor do well in buying Jaguar Land Rover four years ago.

Nonetheless, some analysts questioned the logic of linking the Mahindra family to Aston Martin — though the 99-year-old British firm had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s when it was owned by another tractor man, industrial magnate David Brown from Yorkshire, England, founder of the classic DB model line beloved of James Bond.

“It’s difficult to visualize a tractor and an Aston Martin in the same garage,” said Mads Kaiser, a fund manager with JI India Equity Fund. “The acquisition will broaden their portfolio but doesn’t add anything to their tractor or India portfolio.”